Gunmen kidnap eight govt employees in South Waziristan

PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen on Thursday kidnapped eight government employees in restive South Waziristan while they were heading to inspect an under construction dam, officials said.

The incident took place in Toi Khula area of the South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border where unidentified gunmen intercepted their vehicle and took them to an unknown location.

Zafrul Islam, the top government official in South Waziristan, said project director of Chao Tangi small dam, two geologists and other technical staff of the dam were among those kidnapped at gunpoint.

“Gunmen kidnapped these eight government employees when they were heading to the dam site,” Islam told AFP.

A second senior government official confirmed the abduction and told AFP that a search operation had been launched to locate the abductors.

No group has yet claimed responsibility.

South Waziristan is one of Pakistan’s seven tribal districts which border Afghanistan and have remained home to militants in the past.

The Taliban blew up a girls’ school in South Waziristan in February saying the school had been targeted because it was run by the military and the group was opposed to female education.

Pakistan’s army stepped up its offensive in the region after the Taliban’s massacre of 153 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014, and has killed or pushed hundreds of militants to Afghanistan.